Weather News

Melbourne's warm wake up call

If you, like me, live in the city then you will be dependant on being woken up by an alarm clock. And if you are like me, then you will be hitting the snooze button at least twice before getting up.

For many, wintertime is the worst time of the year to get up early. As shorter days means leaving home to work just at the break of dawn or even before. Early in the morning is also the coldest time of the day, making it hard for many to get out of bed.

July 2013, has been exceptional in the number of mild nights across southeastern Australia. Yes, there has been very cold nights in between but mild nights have outnumbered the cold nights this month.

Over the past four nights, Melbourne's night time temperatures have averaged 11 degrees, five degrees above the average. Tomorrow however, the mercury will drop to as low as 4 degrees in the city.

Regardless if you believe in climate change or not, this kind of variability is an integral part of our continental weather pattern. It just happens that this month, we have seen more mild nights than cold nights.

With so many warm nights, and also warm days, Melbourne is on track to register its warmest July in 158 years worth of records. Both the average night-time and daytime temperatures are set to become (with one day left) the warmest ever endured by the city with an average minimum of 9 degrees and average maximum of 16 degrees.

The weather is set to change briefly, as the cold front that just swept through the southern half of the continent will bring a cold airmass in its wake. As such, the next couple of mornings will be colder across the south and inland areas, dropping 5 to 8 degrees when compared to Tuesday's minimums. Word of advice, set multiple alarms or position your alarm out of reach so that you have to get out of bed to turn it off.